westlake



(No Model.) 3 sheets-sheet 1.

W. WBSTLAKE.

FURNACE. No. 331,597. Patented Dec. 1, 1885.

WITNESSES:

3 Sheets- Sheet 2. (Modem W. WESTLAKE.

PURNAGE.

No. 331,597. Patented Dec. 1, 1885.

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3 Sheets-Sheet 3.

(No Model.)

W. 'WESTLAKB.

FURNAUE.

l ented Dec. 1, 1885..v

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WILLIAM IVESTLAKE, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

FURNACE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 331,597, dated December 1, 1885.

Application filed March 6, 1885. Serial No. 157,896. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM WnsrLaKn, of Brooklyn, Kings county, in the State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Furnaces, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to provisions for supplying heated air to the combustible gases arising from decomposition of coal or produced by other means and requiring atmos pheric air to effect their combustion, and to heating the gases themselves under some conditions. Many efforts have been heretofore made with partial success to supplyair to such gases, so as to complete the combustion. I have discovered that the gases should be subdivided and carried through channels or passages of little width, bounded by non-conducting material located directly over the fire, and as near as practicable to the bedof incandescent coal or other solid fuel, so as to attain an unusually high temperature there, and also that the air-streams be projected with suffi cient force to traverse quite across thepassages and impinge against the intensely-heated material on the opposite side, and also should be inclined upward, so as to not retard the draft, but, on the contrary, to promote it. Another point of importance which I attain is the heating of the gases at periods when they are thrown off at a low temperature, as when coal has been freshly supplied. By this arrangement I attain a degree of perfection in the maintaining of a high temperature in the gases when smoke tends to form, and in the presentation of the air to the gases, not heretofore attained by any arrangement within my knowledge.

The fire-brick or other non conducting tubes, or the non-conducting facings provided below the tubes, perform an important function, not only in maintaining an unusually high temperature at the point of combustion of the gases-that is to say, the narrow spaces where the jets of air are thrown into and mingled with the combustible gascsbut also by maintaining a higher temperaturethan usual in the space below, in which place the freshly charged fuel is being decomposed.

I attach importance most of all to the fact that myfire-bricks treasure upheat while the tire below is bright and give it off again to the gases when they rise at too low a temperature to be otherwise burned.

The accompanying drawings form a part of this specification.

Figure l is a vertical section showing what I consider the best means of carrying out the invention, and also a steam-boiler adapted to serve therewith. Fig. 2 is a vertical section in a plane at right angles to that in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a vertical section through a modification in a plane longitudinal of the furnace. This figure shows also the boiler and furnacewalls. Fig. 4 is an elevation showing one of the cross-tubes with its connected fire-brick. Fig. 5 is a vertical section through the same. Fig. 6 is a vertical section corresponding to Fig. 8, but in a plane at right angles thereto. Fig. 7 is a plan view of the principal portion of the furnace.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures where they occur.

Referring to Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, M is a tubular boiler, of a form adapted to serve with a furnace having walls of fire-brick. Such walls are indicated by N, and. contain passages n, through which fresh air from the exterior is allowed to flow bynatural draft, oris preferably forced by a Blackman fan.

AA, &c.,arc arching tubes extending across the furnace in a series side by side. Each communicates at each end with the air-passages n in the walls, so as to receive heated air therefrom. Each side of each tube A is provided with inclined apertures, in which are set inclined tubes A. The end of each tube is flattened, so as to spread the jets of air which issue therefrom and form a nearly or quite continuous sheet of air projected outward and upward.

The firebrick which go to make these arches are formed to make close joints and to present wide surfaces below, and the arches A are located so close to the fire-bed that these broad surfaces serve important functions in coking the coal. The arches A are arranged so near together that the intervening spaces for the passage of the gases are not wider than from one-half to one inch, while the depth of heating-surface is from six to eight inches before the air strikes the gases. The long narrow passages thus formed between the arches serve efliciently to carry the gases up to the necessary high temperature, and the fresh air is introduced to mix with these highly-heated gases near the upper ends of these passages. The arch es, and consequently the passages, are arranged transverse to the longitudinal plane of the fire-box, and the passages serve to divide up the gases into separate streams, to bring each stream to a high temperature, and to feed air to each after it has attained such proper high temperature. It must be understood that the combined area of the several passages must be equal to the draft necessities of the boiler and furnace, and that these may be of any number and-size, the essential features being that they be arranged transverse to the boiler, are sufficiently deep to thoroughly heat the gases. are sufficiently narrow that all the gases will be under control, andthat the air be fed under force, so as to impinge upon every part of the gas. The jets of fresh air thus thrown outward and upward from one tube may impinge directly against the corresponding air ejected from the adjacent tube; or they may, by reason of a difference of level or other cause, be projected across and strike against the solid surfaces which are opposite. In either case the collision will induce a strong agitation and an unusually complete mixing of the gas and the air under conditions favorable to the maintenance of avery high temperature at those points, so that the most complete combustion is insured. The gases therefrom rise and circulate against the surfaces of'the boiler and traverse through the tubes, imparting their heat in the usual manner and with the ordinary effect, except that by reason of the completeness of the combustion more heat than usual is obtained from a given quantity of gas, and the production of smokeis avoided. The tubes A are preferably made of separate bricks.

I attach importance to the subdividing of the gases into thin streams and to projecting the air against the same in narrow spaces inclosed between the very hot walls. I also attach importance to the efiect of my fire-brick tubes, or of my tubes having fire-brick facings below them, in their influence on the coal below and on the gases rising therefrom when they rise too cool. The freshly-charged coal lying upon theolder fuel below distills off any combustible gas which it contains. Gare being taken to limit the supply of air to the solid material below, the solid fuel is not fully burned, but it is decomposed into carbonic oxide and other gases,which rise and constitute the fuel which is burned by the jets of additional air in the narrower spaces under the conditions which I maintain.

The incandescent fire-brick below my tubes perform an important function in raising the temperature of the gases to a high point before they reach the point where the heated air is received and they are burned.

Modifications may be made in the forms and proportions. Parts of the invention may be used without the whole. The tubes A may be omitted, and the air may be ejected in separate streams from holes in the fire-bricks, properly directed without such tubes; but it is essential to the success of the invention that whether continuous or isolated the jets shall impinge against either a solid surface or another jet of gas, and that the gas be always very hot.

Figs. 3 to 7, inclusive, show tubes of iron of peculiarsection, each with fire-brick below. The tubes are straight instead of arching; but the effect is substantially the same. The firebrick under each tube is arranged to receive the impact of the jets from the adjacent tube.

These tubes receive the air from the passages inthe wall, not directly, but through the intervention of goose'neck. tubes favorably arranged to allow the air to become still further heated.

Some of the advantages of the invention may be attained by causing the jets of fresh air to impinge against the stream of gas, or the gas to impinge against the air, so long as the currents are divided, and the space in which the mixing is effected is small and bounded by non-conducting refractory material at an intensely high temperature, so as to heat the gases and the air, as described.

I attach importance to the arrangement of the parts over the fire and close to it.

I am aware that various devices have been before proposed for introducing air in jets to the gaseous products of combustion in narrow spaces after such gases arise and have com menced to move horizontally along under the cooler surface of a boiler. Such does not produce the same effect, and is not claimed.

In ordinary boilers and furnaces the steampressure is lowered in the act of charging the fire-box by reason of the ingress of cold air and of its action upon the flues. By my construction any air entering the door has to pass through the long and narrow interstices before it can reach the fines, and in such passage it becomes so heated as to have no depressing effect upon the boiler.

In practice my arches A are so low in the fire-box that the coal is jammed against their lower surfaces. These surfaces, having attained an intense heat, act directly upon the new charge of fuel to coke the same and to extract therefrom the gases in a very hot state, which have no other escape than through the narrow spaces between the arches, where they become intensely hot and ready to receive the fresh air. This air is supplied at the upper end of the spaces and the gases are thoroughly consumed.

Instead of making the arches tubular and connecting them to the air-passages in the side walls, the arches may be of solid firebrick, capped by air-passages thus connected, as indicated in Fig. 3.

My invention may be applied with the bars of fire-brick arched somewhat more or somewhat less than here shown.

It is only essern tial that there shall be a nearly horizontal stratum of fire-brick with the narrow and deep passages and air-jets arranged as shown. The arches may, with some advantages, be extended lengthwise of the furnace; but the full ben efit of the invention will only be realized by extending them transversely about as shown.

The invention may be applied with upright boilers and round furnaces.

I claim as my invention 1. In a boiler'furnace of the class described, a series of transverse arches of fire-brick having broad bases and arranged low in the firebox, whereby said bases will present efficient coking-surface, and at such proximity to each other as to leave narrow deep transverse spaces for the passage of gas, adapted to serve with air-supply apertures, as and for the purposes set forth.

2. The transverse arches of fire-brick having broad bases and arranged low in the firebox to provide narrow deep intervening spaces, combined with upward] y-inclined fresh-air j ets arranged along the upper part of such spaces,

as and for the purpose set forth.

3. In a boiler-furnace, the combination, with fire-brick arches arranged, as described, to form deep and narrow intervening spaces, of

fresh-air chutes or passages having jets arranged with an upward incline in opposite directions, whereby fresh air under force will be projected across such spaces to meet or cross each other and thoroughly mix with the rising heated gases, as set forth.

4:. The tubular arches A, having connections with air-passages a, and having upwardlyinclined tubes A, combined with a furnace,

and arranged transversely therein to form an.

arch low in the fire-box, with narrow and deep transverse passages,into which or across which the said tubes A direct the fresh air under force, as set forth.

5. A boiler furnace having a horizontal stratum of firebrick, with narrow and deep vertical passages formed therein, and having a series of air jets or orifices opening upon an upward incline into or above such narrow passages, as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand at New York city, New York, this 3d d by of February, 1885, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

\VILLIAM WVESTLAKE.

Vitnesses:

Trroiriis DREW STETsoN, M. F. BOYLE. 

